Thin compactifications and relative fundamental classes

Abstract

We define a notion of relative fundamental class that applies to moduli spaces in gauge theory and in symplectic Gromov-Witten theory. For universal moduli spaces over a parameter space, the relative fundamental class specifies an element of the Cech homology of the compactification of each fiber; it is defined if the compactification is "thin" in the sense that its boundary has homological codimension at least two.